The transfer of power between the first Protector and the second was smooth and uneventful; in December 1658 it appeared that England was, and would remain, a republic. But when parliament reconvened, it quickly became clear that the fissures running through the political nation remained unhealed.

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Miranda Malins is an historian, author, novelist and a member of the Cromwell Association. She takes a look back at Cromwell, his life, times, achievements and failures, and the myths and opinions which have grown up around him.

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In 1658, the year started with hopeful clarity. There was a new constitution om a firmer footing, and a new parliament was about to sit. There was little sign any more of royalist rebellion, the Commonwealth name was feared and respected abroad and surely now the Protectorate could build from these foundations. But parliament displayed continuing division, and the Commonwealth was to lose the person around who it had been built

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Thomas Hobbes has been described as 'one of the true founders of modernity in Western culture'. His most famous work Leviathan was inspired by the issues raised by the Revolution, published in 1651 as he came home - and used to support the Protectorate. Meanwhile in Oxford, Wilkins, Boyle, Hooke, Petty, Ward and others were rewriting the rules of Natural Philosophy

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In London, and towns like Oxford, the Protectorate saw the return of stability, economic change and a revived social scene - and the arrival of the Coffee house, and the penny university. Stability and old rythmns re-established themslves around the country, and royalists reacted in different ways. Some like the L'Estrange family in North Norfolk preserved the old ways and accepted the new, though rattled by the Decimation tax. Others found artistic responses - like Katherine Philips, Izaak Walton, and Margaret Cavendish

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Cromwell's court struck a balance between the status required of a head of state, and the Cromwell's own openbness and informality. It was a court full of music, as was the supposedly joyless puritan state. There was little of the London theatre, though popular performance at fairs went on as before - but Britain saw its first Opera and John Playford's Dancing Master was all the rage. And in 1657, the first openly Jewish place of worship opened in Creechurch Lane

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After a year of the rule of the major generals, there was no money to support their militia. Now, the obvious solution was to repeat and continue the decimation tax; but the Council of State felt that parliament must be consulted. The opponents of the miliary regime gathered their strength - this was their opportunity to mount a coup of their own.

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There was much about Cromwell that was Elizabethan. He was fiercely patriotic, he dreamed of building as trading nation, and laying low the Spanish Empire with a Protestant Alliance. The Western Design against the Spanish Caribbean was part of that plan. It's outcome was to be a crisis for me; and in the face of security threats from within and without, and the withdrawal of God's approval a bold experiment was needed - enter the Major Generals

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Cromwell might have felt that the first 9 months went rather well, from his perspective - the Council of State was working well, getting things done, the settlement of the Commonwealth was proceeding and rebellions suppressed - and the first Protectorate parliament would surely be populated with serious, hard working men who would help heal and settle the nation. He was to find out that his nation was as yet far from settled or healed.

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This year we go to York and West Yorkshire, from 8th to 17th September. We'll stay in the Spa town of Harrogate, and in glorious York, Capital of the North with its Cathedral, the Minster, the medieval shopping street of the Shambles and loads of other sights too. We'll go to the Dales, and visit castles, sturdy limestone villages, fortified manor houses, grand stately homes. And the inspiration of artists and poets, Fountains Abbey. Plus there'll be breweries and folk music. Fun, laughter and history guaranteed. Go to the Podcast Tour page to find out more.

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